In general, a silver halide photographic material has layers containing a hydrophilic colloid binder such as gelatin on at least one side of a support. Hydrophilic colloid layers, unfortunately, tend to stretch in proportion with changes in humidity and/or temperature. These dimensional changes to a photographic light-sensitive material, particularly those used in graphic arts, can be a serious defect.
For graphic arts photographic materials, a number of methods have been proposed in the hope of increasing dimensional stability. Examples of these methods are specifying a ratio of for the total thickness of hydrophilic colloid layers to the thickness of the base (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,250, and so on); incorporating a polymer latex into a hydrophilic colloid layer (as disclosed in JP-B -39-4272 (The term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-B-39-17702, JP-B-43-13482, JP-B-45-5331, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,376,005, 2,763,625, 2,772,166, 2,852,386, 2,853,457, 3,397,988, 3,411,911 and 3,411,912); and providing a waterproofing layer as an undercoat of the support surface (as disclosed in JP-A-60-3627 (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). Even when the light-sensitive materials themselves are improved by using methods such as described above, it is essentially difficult to improve the dimensional stability of a hydrophilic colloid, like gelatin, under all possible variations of temperature/humidity. Various methods have been proposed for controlling the drying conditions during the dry-processing of automatic processor by using a heater (as disclosed in JP-A-56-095239, JP-A-63-049760, JP-A-63-236043). These methods were directed mainly toward the development of drying methods that would increase drying speed, save energy, and ensure excellent emulsion coats and high travelling facility.
More specifically, one of increasing drying speed involved using a flow of drying air that was slow and weak during the first half of the drying step, and then fast and strong during the latter half of the drying step. Another methods involves lowering the preheating temperature of the heater when light-sensitive materials were not in the apparatus to use energy more economically. Another art consisted of detecting the temperature and the humidity of the room in which the automatic processor was installed (hereinafter "the surrounding temperature and humidity") and controlling the drying in the automatic processor based on this information so that the light-sensitive materials would not be overdried or underdried.
However, these methods did not improve the dimensional stability of a light-sensitive material under all possible variations of temperature/humidity. For instance, during a time of low humidity, such as winter, the dimension of a light-sensitive material is lengthened because the temperature of the drying air in the processor is high which results in the light-sensitive material being "overdried". On the other hand, during a time of high humidity such as during the summer, the temperature of the drying air is set such that the light-sensitive material is barely dried, which causes a shrinkage of the light-sensitive material. Such variation are referred to as the "aggravation of dimensional stability through processing". Aggravation of dimensional stability is, particularly a problem for light-sensitive materials used for the graphic arts.
No attempts are known to have been made to heighten the dimensional stability of a light-sensitive material through the use of an automatic processor.
In addition, it has not yet been known that the dimensional stability can be improved by controlling the temperature of drying air.